Tag: Health Promotion

Feb 28: Ruth Grant speaking to the HMS Division of Medical Ethics

Nir Eyal Leave a comment


Please join the HMS Division of Medical Ethics and Program in Ethics and Health for…

“Strings Attached: Untangling the Ethics of Incentives”

Ruth W. Grant, PhD

Professor of Political Science and Philosophy, Duke University

Thursday, February 28, 2013

12:00 – 1:15 PM

HMS Division of Medical Ethics

1st Floor Conference Room

641 Huntington Avenue, Boston

A light lunch will be provided. RSVP required to DME@hms.harvard.edu.

Ruth Grant is a Professor of Political Science at Duke University and a Senior Fellow at the Kenan Institute for Ethics, specializing in political theory and political ethics. Her most recent book, Strings Attached: Untangling the Ethics of Incentives, examines moral concerns raised by the pervasive use of incentives to shape behavior. Her seminar talk will propose an ethical framework for thinking about the promises and limits of incentives, including the use of incentives in public health.

No Doctor for the Obese?

Nir Eyal Leave a comment

by Nir Eyal

Yesterday, Boston public radio station WBUR interviewed a Massachusetts primary care physician who refuses to admit new obese patients. She claims that it’s because she lacks proper equipment, but she seems to have mixed motives. Earlier she had admitted that it’s rather because she feels that if they don’t lose the weight, “I’m paying the cost of other people’s choices.” I bet if she lacked the equipment for wheelchair-bound patients, she would go buy it.

In an upcoming post (09/07: update here), Holly Fernandez Lynch, who, along with Glenn Cohen, gets kudus for kicking off this blog, will explain whether it’s legal for doctors to reject obese patients. But before rejecting them becomes the next trend, is it right?

A whopping 35.7% of Americans are obese, and the trend continues upwards. Obesity increases risk for heart disease, stroke, type II diabetes, and various cancers. It costs the system a fortune. We must tackle this problem head on. But conditioning physician access on weight loss is not the way. Read More